Coach Profile: A Foundation for Transformation with Caitlin Williams

Guiding someone’s life transformation, whether large or small, can be a heady experience. Case in point, Aubrey wanted to graduate college magna cum laude. Realizing she might not attain this goal sent her into a tailspin. She faced numerous trials while attending school including taking three classes at once as well as recently recovering from an intense post-partum depression.

For many InsideTrack coaches, it’s precisely these moments that serve as their inspiration and motivation for their work. And helping college students is often more of a passion than simply a job.

Different Coaching Styles for Different Students

From an outsider’s perspective, hearing coaches speak with students might sound repetitious. Initial conversations may sound similar as the coaches introduce how InsideTrack coaching works and learn about students’ goals and aspirations. But every coach and every student is different: in order to appreciate the full value of a conversation, hearing both sides is key.

“They might all be students in the same school, but they’re there for different reasons and have different lives,” Williams said. “The ways they see themselves in the middle of it can be very different. I kind of shape the coaching to fit the student. Each coaching meeting is going to take a different shape.”

Building a Foundation for the Future

Coaches can aid students in making decisions, but their more important purpose is to give students tools to build a foundation of self-reliance for the future. This often means asking more in-depth, open-ended questions to discover root issues that might hamper the students in school and in life.

Helping students conquer root issues can not only help them with school, but it gives them tools to help solve their own problems in the future. Even a single conversation can have a tremendous impact.

The Dynamic Art of Coaching

Whether they’re working with undergraduate or graduate students, those who are already in school or contemplating applying, coaches agree that they want to help people and learn their stories. To some, it might sound easy, but it’s an art form that requires constant practice, development and adjustments. Coaches come from a variety of backgrounds from enrollment services at a university, to theater to running a bike shop.

Williams says she has to remember she’s working with people, and that coaching is a dynamic art.

“We’re not working magic,” she said. “Sometimes they’re ready to move forward and sometimes they’re not. You have to know when to give it a rest and when to give them a push.”